Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2011-84081 (hereinafter referred to as “the relevant patent literature”), for example, discloses a seat belt apparatus provided with a belt reacher. According to the disclosure of the relevant patent literature, a retractor is driven in a forward direction as a door of a vehicle opens, so that a webbing is rewound or take up and thus a belt reacher takes a substantial stand-up posture at a stored position. Further, the retractor is driven in a reverse direction as the vehicle door closes, and thus, a return spring urges the belt reacher forwardly until the belt reacher is held in a forwardly-inclined posture by a first or second stopper depending on a position of a seat.
Because the belt reacher in the seat belt apparatus disclosed in the relevant prior patent literature moves to the stored position in response to opening of the vehicle door, it does not get in the way when a vehicle occupant, such as a driver, gets in the vehicle. Also, because the belt reacher falls forward in response to opening of the vehicle door, the driver can easily hold the webbing or tongue plate and thus can easily insert the tongue plate into a buckle or fix the tongue plate to the buckle.
However, as the retractor is driven in the reverse direction in the seat belt apparatus disclosed in the relevant prior patent literature, the belt reacher merely falls from the stored position forward by the biasing force of the return spring and is held in the forwardly-inclined posture by the first or second stopper. In other words, by the retractor being merely driven in the reverse direction in the aforementioned manner, an uncomfortable feeling would be given to the vehicle occupant because the belt reacher falls forward at a predetermined constant speed and is then stopped suddenly by the first or second stopper.